. >> reporter: california's governor jerry brown agrees it's an emergency. so he authorized an immediate switch to winter blend gasoline which can be more polluting but could soon bring down prices by 15 cents to 20 cents a gallon. relief drivers say they need. >> i had to cut back on the groceries in order to get some gas in order to get to work, get the kids to school. >> reporter: prices went up so quickly last week they sometimes seemed to change by the hour. >> in a week it's gone up about 52 cents. absolutely unprecedented from our perspective. >> reporter: the sharp rise was blamed on the supply squeeze that began after a fire shut down part of a chevron refinery in august. then a power failure knocked out an exxon refinery last week. with both refineries now back in operation, wholesale prices on the stock market have already started going down. when wholesale prices go up, the price at the pump seems to rise immediately. but when wholesale prices drop, there's usually a lag at the pump. so california drivers are likely to be paying near record high